Archive for the ‘Book Reviews’ Category

            Chapter 5 begins a series of seven important chapters that will be central to understand Lewis’s Till We Have Faces.  In this chapter we have a crucial exposition of the ways of the goddess Ungit by her priest, an animated debate between the Priest of Ungit and the Fox, which is a dispute between religious mystery and human rationalism, and finally more evidence of the differences between the Fox and Orual over religion. Read the rest of this entry »

            Chapter 3 of Till We Have Faces related the increasing practice of worshipping Psyche.  In chapter 4 we begin to see the dangerous consequences of this worship.  We also see a more clearly negative side to Orual. Read the rest of this entry »

            Chapter 3 of C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces continues two important themes.  First, there is the increasing attribution of divinity to Psyche by word and worship.  Second, the discussion between the Fox and Orual concerning the gods takes a couple of interesting turns. Read the rest of this entry »

             Chapter 2 of Till We Have Faces, the subject of the third of my reflections on Lewis’s novel, contains three important developments.

• We learn more about the Fox’s beliefs.
• Psyche is born.
• The first words are uttered that compare Psyche with the gods and the concomitant danger of provoking the goddess Ungit’s envy.

    Read the rest of this entry »

            This is the second in a series on C.S. Lewis’s novel Till We Have Faces (Faces).  The first piece stressed the importance of the title, the subtitle which states that Lewis is retelling a myth and finally the quotation from Shakespeare that concerns the relationship between love and conscience.  Now we’ll look at chapter one, which introduces the main characters and the setting, and very importantly, the narrative form of the novel. Read the rest of this entry »